It was reported last week that Mazepin had talks with Williams about a possibility of acquiring the controlling interest of the team. The rumor was dispelled by Russian company Uralkali and now by Claire Williams herself.

“I saw those stories, I paid little attention to them,” said Williams.

“I haven’t met Mr Mazepin to talk about that. We had a brief conversation in the mid part of last year but subsequent to that there have been no conversations.

“I’d just like to be really categoric about it: Williams is not for sale, I have no intention of putting Williams up for sale. I don’t see why we would.”

The rumor about the sale comes on the heels of Williams struggling at the back of the grid in one of the most uncompetitive cars they ever produced. Claire Williams however categorically denies that the team would be put up for sale in the foreseeable future.

“In times like this that the team is going through at the moment, this rumor always comes up.

“But with my business head on, when your team isn’t doing well selling at this juncture wouldn’t be the right time to do.

“We’d only investigate that opportunity if we were doing well. That’s the right time to sell. Williams is in this sport and has been for more than four decades and we’ve never wanted to sell.

“This is what we do, we don’t have anything else to do. So it’s not on the market, I don’t want to sell it to anybody, I want to go out and prove that we can do what we are in the sport to do, and that’s to get back on the podium and win races again.

“That may take us a long time, but it took Frank more than 10 years to do it when he first started in this sport, and I’m sure that we’ll have a lot more stuff thrown at us.

“But you don’t give up when times get tough. It’s a test of your character to continue and prove to everybody that you can do it.”

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